Postmenopausal women: the aesthetic role in the body image, humor and quality of life

Abstract

Introduction: Aging causes a series of bodily and psychological changes, but esthetic changes in old age are still poorly reported in the literature, these
changes being related to body image, mood and quality of life. Goals: Characterize the body image, the mood and the quality of life for women in the
postmenopausal who search for a specialized esthetic treatment. Methods: Took part in this cross-sectional study 46 women who searched aesthetic care. The following data were collected: presence of SSD (Geriatric Depression Scale: GDS-15), QOL (WHOQOL-bref), satisfaction/dissatisfaction with BI (Stunkard’s silhouettes scale), age, marital status, occupation, personal and family income in minimum wages (MW), education, the duration of menopause, body mass index (BMI), reason for seeking aesthetic treatments and physical changes observed in the postmenopausal period. The data were analyzed by the Fisher test and t-student test, in addition the correlation coefficient of Pearson ou Spearman. The level of significance was 5% (p≤0,05). The study was approved by CEP-PUCRS. Results: The average age of the participants was 60 years and the menopause duration ranged from 5.4 to 13.7 years. There were 39 women (84,4%) insatisfied with their body images, presented scores above 70 points in all QOL’s domains and 27 (69,2%) did not presented SSD. With regard to BMI, 41.3% of participants were eutrophic, 41.3% were overweight and 17.4% obese. Dissatisfaction with BI presented significant positive associations with the SSD (rs=0,367; p=0,012) and BMI (rs=0,522; p<0,001), and negative ones with the physical (rs=-0,393; p<0,01), psychological (rs=-0,355; p<0,05) and environment of QOL (rs=-0,329; p<0,05). Most searched the service only because of women aesthetic or because of aesthetic and health. Most participants (85%) showed satisfaction with the actual esthetic treatment. The main physical changes noticed in the postmenopausal were: the elasticity decrease (76.08%) and the skin oiliness (52.17%) as well as increase in facial ptosis (80.43%), facial sagging (78.26%), body fat (78.26%) body sagging (73.91%), white hair (69.50%), body weight (65.21%), skin drying (65.21%), spots on the face (56.52%) and fatigue (52.17%).
Conclusion: The study showed that most of the evaluated women are dissatisfied with their BI, there is a high level of satisfaction with their QOL and do not presented SSD. The satisfaction with their BI is related with a better QOL, least likelihood of presenting SSD, lower BMI and higher income. These women sought treatment primarily for aesthetic and health issues, and most of them are satisfied with the treatment.